The present invention is directed to the field of railroad track inspection, and more specifically to a method and system of rail component detection using vision technology.
To maintain safe and efficient operations, railroads must inspect their tracks for physical defects on a regular basis. Track inspections are not only required by Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) regulations, but also enforced by individual railroad companies, usually with more stringent requirements, to maintain track health to a higher standard. Such track inspection normally covers a wide spectrum of tests, ranging from detecting surface cracks on the rail, measuring rail profile and gauge size, to monitoring the conditions of joint bars, spikes and anchors. Some of these inspections, such as the measurement of the position, curvature and alignment of the track, have already been automated using a track geometry car, yet others, such as monitoring the spiking and anchor patterns, and detecting raised or missing spikes and anchors, are still manually and visually conducted by railroad track inspectors.